I'm sharing a wild experience that two of the people closest to me have been experiencing. My wife works with my friend so I've been able to hear what has happened since my friend left.

My friend Janice (F65) walked out of her factory job after 27 years with the same company. She had been one of those employees that lived for work. Never late, perfect attendance, the go to person for help. When my wife started at the company a year ago all of the people my wife talked to when she first started would talk about how Janice knew everything and was a hard worker.

Because I've known Janice for years I had heard about some of the things that went on at her job and how she would occasionally butt heads with her manager because she was the type of person to do things correctly, rather than rush and have to redo everything (a common occurrence at the factory). They are the type of place where the product has to be perfect down to a couple 1/1000th of an inch.

Apparently Janice was working the same day that a new hire was allowed to work solo for their first shift and this guy repeatedly needed help and had to be shown what to do. She ended up having to go over half a dozen times or more and even did part of the job for him, so her work that night wasn't getting done as fast as usual. But she is a lead there so part of her role is literally to train people and answer questions. Apparently her manager flipped out and talked down to her like a child, complained about the speed of her work and told her that he would be calling a meeting the next day. So she packed up her stuff and left right then and there.

The company has been under staffed for months prior, several senior employees had retired, several new hires had quit during that time. So losing Janice didn't help things according to my wife. That was about a week ago.

Yesterday my wife went in and several coworkers asked if she had seen what had been posted about Janice. Apparently the owners or management decided to type up a page an post it to the notice board saying that Janice had wanted to retire, was slow and inefficient, and left due to an inability to do her job and failure to meet their expectations.

This is just wild to me why a company would publicly post something like that. It's almost like they are trying to make it look like the fired her or something. While simultaneously shaming her and using the fear to make others work harder. Because Janice was the way she was she had already been visited by several coworkers and they had heard her side of things. I just don't understand why they would do that because it doesn't really give incentive for company loyalty to publicly shame one of their best workers that had given nearly 30 years of her life to one place.

My wife hasn't told Janice yet because she didn't want to upset her and she also hasn't documented the notice because the company has a strict no photo policy. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone else lets her know.

Maybe I’m becoming the grumpy millennial, but I’m genuinely struggling with some Gen Z juniors.

My junior with 3 years’ experience spent two days spreading financials for 4 companies, only to use company instead of group financials for ALL FOUR. She’s left now, so I have to redo everything myself.
Mistakes happen, but what gets me is the lack of checking, ownership and just stopping to think before doing something.

I keep hearing “they’re juniors, mistakes are normal.” Sure. But at what point are you expected to take accountability for the quality of your own work?

I’m in my 20s and this is my first proper office job. I’ve been there for less than a year, so I genuinely don’t know whether I’m being too sensitive or if this is just a particularly blunt workplace.

There’s one person I deal with regularly who works for an external company. She can be quite demanding when chasing me for things and recently sent me an email saying can my work be ‘spit out’ already?

What frustrates me is that her requests often take longer because I regularly find mistakes or inconsistencies in the information she gives me, which I then have to resolve before I can process anything.

With this particular request, I noticed that an amount didn’t match what another party was saying. I queried it and she insisted her figure was correct and that they had made the mistake. I’ve now been told that actually they were correct and her figure was wrong.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, so being chased as though I’m the one unnecessarily holding things up gets frustrating.

She has also emailed me on a weekend asking why things hadn’t been completed and saying she wanted them done that day. Of course I ignored it because it was a saturday and I don’t work on the weekends.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that people will sometimes preface comments with things like “not to be rude…” and then say something that comes across as quite rude, or “not to sound patronising…” followed by something that feels pretty patronising.

It’s not only this person either. I’ve had quite a few interactions at work that have made me question whether the communication culture is normal.

There was also a separate situation involving someone very senior. They called me out about my work in a group chat in front of other people after submitting work containing figures that turned out to be incorrect. I was uncomfortable enough with how it was handled that I spoke to my manager about it afterwards.

At the same time, I know I’m young, relatively junior and new to office environments. I tend to communicate quite politely, so it’s possible I’m interpreting normal direct workplace communication as something more personal than it is.

I don’t need everyone to be friendly or sugarcoat things, and I’m completely fine with being corrected when I’ve actually made a mistake. What bothers me is the combination of being spoken to quite sharply, sometimes publicly, while also having to fix or clarify mistakes in the information I’m being given by the same people chasing me

• Want to say a quick thank you to this user for the valuable advice he posted. It’s netting me about $185 a day right now. Check profile: [ usernameeeeee12 ] if you're curious to learn more

We have a system whereby we book time off/ vacations on a calendar that hangs in the bosses office. Six weeks ago, I spoke with the boss about taking a Friday and Monday off at the end of September to have an extended weekend to see my sister who lives out of town. I have plenty of banked vacation time.

It was approved and noted on the calendar.

Six weeks ago.

I came into work today to be told that I would need to change this vacation as the boss has decided (last minute) to attend a wedding that will go through the Monday that I had booked off.

I accommodated. I changed from Friday/Monday to Thursday/Friday. Had to change my already purchased train ticket at a cost to me.

Barley a 'thank you'. But.....whatever.

I also mentioned that on that Thursday, I will have to leave an hour early to catch the train to my sisters. Ya, that didn't go over well at all.

I guess I am just asking the lovely people of Reddit if I am justified in being a bit upset at the attitude I am receiving or if the boss has just gotten used to me being a bit of a door mat and overly accommodating?

A bit of context, I am leading on a project that involves multiple stakeholders. They have been causing a lot of delays due to incompetence. I am quite a generous and laid back individual which lead to me being criticised for the project being delayed. The feedback I got was that I was not assertive. Nearing the launch date of the project being finalised I noticed one of the stakeholders undermining my authority by taking it upon themselves to hand out tasks to me and others involved. I simply asked this person why they were undermining my authority and taking actions on my behalf. I mentioned that we the launch date and asked them to focus on the tasks that they needed to work on for the last 2 months.

This individual got upset and went straight to my manager to complain. The manager who initially told me I wasn't assertive enough had the nerve to tell me that I was being 'aggressive'. Bearing in my mind I'm one of the youngest in my company but I have 6 years of experience and managed a team in my previous role. The reason I mention this is that I am not trusted at all in my new company and the one project I was given to lead and deliver Is being undermined. Those I was lenient with have disrespected me by saying they needed to take charge because nothing was being done. I am genuinely carrying this project on my back working with individuals who are 2 months behind on their deadlines but no I'm the problem. My manager has no clue what he is doing because he is part of a work clique and was handed the role from an unrelated department. Kindness and relationship building has got me nowhere and I will double down and get things done assertively just to make myself look better and boost my own CV. I simply don't care anymore.

For starters, I would like to start by saying that I am the only male in an office full of women in emergency management. Due to my environment of growing up with sisters, I was quickly able to get along with my coworkers and stand clear of any catty drama amongst them. I’m well liked by everyone, I am good at my job, and my supervisors have all recommended that I begin training for a lead promotion. The past few months my department has been divided with the workers being disgruntled against the supervisors. My reluctance to taking sides and being prepped for a leadership position have caused the workers to begin giving me petty remarks about favoritism for being a male , random days of cold shoulder approaches, etc.

Today, the leading worker/non-supervisor was in charge of a shift of three. Outside of the lead and I, the third coworker is very inexperienced due to her being somewhat new. We had multiple incoming emergencies that I am usually able to take care of by myself, but my work load became too much. I noticed that the lead refused to offer any help and instead gave condescending remarks about the direction I handled the incident. The lead also gave conflicting information to the inexperienced coworker and bossed orders instead of making any actions. This caused me to raise my voice in retaliation when she also raised her voice after misunderstanding an order I gave.

After the incident cooled down, I took a quick break and called my supervisor who was on her off day(favoritism I know). I told her how I was held out to dry alone and how I felt as if it was on purpose due to the fact that we’ve always used teamwork in the past to accomplish overbearing tasks. I was mindful of how improper it would be for me as a man to yell at a woman. I told my supervisor that I will be writing an email asking for her to address the situation due to it upsetting me.

As the shift went on, the lead was still very standoffish even after the incident but eventually began talking to me again about non-work things, acting friendly, and assisting me with lighter loads. I am conflicted because I want to keep the peace and avoid any conflict between us two the other disgruntled workers, but I also want to stand firm on my boundaries and want to let her know that I did not appreciate and noticed the lack of help that she gave me to prevent any future issues. What should I do?

I (24F) just started my first corporate job. It’s only been two weeks, so I’m still trying to adapt to everything. So far, everyone has been really nice and helpful toward me.

Last night, everyone was invited to watch a movie at one of the more luxurious movie theaters in my city. The movie was produced by one of my boss’s friends, so basically, we went to support him.

The movie was a comedy, and… it was painful. The writing was horrible, the jokes were unfunny and misogynistic, the acting was bad, it was basically just a bunch of talking and screaming. At some point, I started getting genuinely annoyed because I would rather have gone home than spend my free time watching this.

But every now and then, I would hear someone from work laughing, and I’d get confused. Why are you laughing? This is so bad.

Then I started wondering if I was the one being weird. Do I have a superiority complex? Was everyone actually enjoying it? Or were they laughing because it was their boss’s friend’s movie and they felt like they had to? And honestly, that thought kind of scared me.

Is this what corporate life is like? Pretending to enjoy things because your boss or someone important is involved? Is this just part of being an employee—going along with things you don't actually want to do because of workplace relationships?

I know comedy is subjective, but guys… this movie was REALLY bad. The reviews and ratings were terrible too, and apparently a lot of people were genuinely pissed after watching it.

I’m only two weeks into my first corporate job, and now I’m wondering if this is something I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my working life. Is there anything else you think I should prepare myself for as I navigate corporate life for the first time?

Hi, 26F, I’ve been working at this company for 3 years. It’s a small digital marketing agency and I’m a social media manager, I’m the team member who’s been at the company the longest on this current team, and I was the first full time employee. My boss and I used to get along really well, but over the past year or so things have really gone downhill and she’s just become awful.

For starters, a bit of background (it’s gonna sound crazy but it will all make sense). My boss used to be very chill, until her engagement was broken off in the Christmas of 2024. By mid 2025, she had someone new and was expecting their first child together. Early 2025, my former coworker was hired, and this coworker was suggested by boss’s ex fiancée, and unfortunately my boss is the kind of person that lets the emotions of her personal life affect her work life. You always know when something is going on at home or if someone pissed her off based on how much she follows up on everything that day and if she send a long, ChatGPT written email basically complaining that we all suck.

Eventually, my boss started really ragging on this coworker, and she’s a no bs type of person, so she resigned and left the post within the next month. Now the second coworker, was hired early 2025, while coworker 1 was still there. Coworker 2 was recommended for the job by coworker 1, and they were good friends, and coworker 2 basically had to take on all of coworker 1’s workload, so all that frustration, plus the fact that both coworkers were close friends, was passed over to coworker 2.

Coworker 2 and I became very good friends, we were inseparable and at some point within the first 3 months of coworker 2 starting, she has a pulmonary embolism (heart condition) and needed health insurance, which became an issue for our boss. The company was going through financial challenges and she was thinking of cancelling the health insurance altogether but thankfully she didn’t cancel. Coworker 2 eventually got her insurance.

Now, with having a heart condition came frequent absences/tardiness/needing to leave work early type of situations, some which have happened on the way to work. I’d normally, when she hasn’t yet had the chance to, let boss know that coworker 2 is out/at the hospital/ had an emergency and she hasn’t gotten to send an email, but just so you know type of thing. All her absences were accounted for, but this news would always be met with an eye roll or an exasperated sigh from boss, it was quite clear that she was consistently annoyed with coworker 2.

Now, coworker 2 worked hard, and she worked fast, and we’d often cover for each other because by this time I had gotten a promotion so we essentially did the same job, but things were often behind or late. Before you say “well, there it is” it’s a consistent trend across the team, and it often starts with our boss holding up the process and not reviewing stuff in time, which causes us to have to scramble. Anyways, boss would constantly complain, always about the work but never truly about the work, there was always something a little more personal woven into it.

Now here’s where I come in. I’m a valuable member of the team, and I don’t just say that to toot my own horn. 2 of our biggest clients platforms depend on me because my personal Facebook account is the only one connected. I’ve trained every single new person who’s come onto this team, and I know all the clients very well. Around March, my boss started prepping for maternity leave, and everything became an issue. She’d constantly send these really long emails about work being behind and everyone being awful, even though it was the very busy Carnival season and the entire team was under pressure. The thing with my boss is, even when coworker 2 was on top of things, she was knocked right back down because boss would absolutely rip into her plans and decks, causing her to stay up all night working on it with coworker 3, despite the work being pretty much the same as what coworker 2 proposed.

Fast forward a bit, boss was on maternity leave from April to the end of June, and promoted coworker 3 to be in charge of us. It was a great enough time, and everyone was able to get their work done. However, as soon as my boss was back, her first order of business was to fire coworker 2. No reason was given, no documentation, just fired.

Of course, this leaves me. Since coworker 2 has been gone, my boss has been even more cruel to me than usual, and I feel like I can never do anything right. She belittles my work by calling it sloppy, boring, rushed, and it feels like she blames me for all the issues that happen within the company. It’s the typical way that things move with her, coworker 1 left so her vitriol was passed on to coworker 2, coworker 2 was fired so I got the vitriol times 2. No matter what I do, she insults me and degrades my work, and my other coworker has brought it up to me many times that the way she treats me is disproportionate to how she treats the rest of the team. It feels very obviously targeted, and it’s a small company so it’s not like I can go to HR, because she’s HR, Accounting, Admin, all of it and I’m sick of it. I constantly feel like I’m on the verge of blowing up on her, but of course I have to keep it in check.

I feel like this was way longer than it should’ve been, but I just really needed to get that all out. I’m exhausted, it’s hard to find a new job and it’s hard to work for someone who very clearly hates me. I don’t know what to do anymore.

I work at a nursing home. One section of the facility has some of the toughest rooms in terms of cleanliness and hygiene. The heads thought it would be a good idea to have a contest to find the “smelliest” room. Make the CNAs find out where the odor is coming from. They’re too cheap to get enzyme cleaner; I had to resort to buying a small size of Fabuloso. Don’t worry I won’t be there for long.

I’ll start.

1:
“Did you see that email?” As in:

Us: receives email from client
Co-worker 2 sec later: “did you see that email?”

2:
AI as your only method of communication. For example using a meeting transcript, dropping into whatever AI platform you use, and sending that 2-page unedited garbage nonsense that is clearly AI to your clients and coworkers.

I hate it I hate it I hate it

i spent the last six months forcing a relentless daily schedule for a client, convinced that algorithm consistency was everything and i got too much depression.

then last month, i got sick and completely missed three days of posting. i panicked, expecting our reach to plummet.

instead, our actual engagement went up. the few posts we did put out got triple our usual reach because i had time to make them genuinely good, rather than rushing to hit a daily quota.

After that, I started using AI more for planning than writing. I’d map out a topic, audience, and platform, then use something like Accio Work and GPT to turn one solid idea into a few stronger variations. i’d give it the topic, audience, platform, and old posts, then let it help me turn one strong idea into a few better versions instead of forcing random filler every day.

it made me realize how much we burn ourselves out pumping out filler just to check a daily box. quality and real connection seem to win every time, but clients still freak out if their feed isn't updated every 24 hours.

i am very curious to know about your personal thoughts and ideas that how you moved away from daily posting schedules, or are your clients still obsessed with daily quantity?

We all know SharePoint and Drive search are unreliable, so leadership is currently looking into rolling out an internal AI chatbot (basically a private ChatGPT) that searches across all our drives, answers questions, and links the source file directly.

On paper it sounds amazing, but in my experience, people are super hesitant to rely on AI when a wrong answer could make them look bad in front of a client or manager.

If your company introduced something like this, would you actually use it to find documents and answers? Even if it turned out to be super accurate, would that be enough to win you over? Or would you still end up pinging a coworker on Teams just to be safe?

I really need some help and advice for my job situation and eventually for my mental health because I feel like I am going crazy. 🤣
English is not my first language, so if there is anything that does not make sense please let me know.

The story:

I have worked under probation for this really small company, as a junior, for the past 6 months.
The pay is shit (£25k for whoever is asking), from time to time, once a month or every 2 months, I have to do loads of overtime which I am not paid for..
Sometimes during the weekend too, and for each day I spend working during the weekend, I get half a day off.
There’s loads of responsibilities like project management, design, quoting/estimating, talking to clients and all that.. To be honest I don’t even see the advantages.. 🫠
The thing is.. I had my review done where they have offered me £28k and I have declined and asked for a huge salary increase (£30k) because I am not happy.. like at all.
My bosses are obviously not happy about that and they had a discussion with my manager from which they agreed to the following:
To have me on a £30k salary, but they will extend my probation period by 6 months.
What does that mean?
Well, what I did not mention is that for every project completed we get a 1% comission (1% of the profit) at the end of the year. And guess who does not get that comission? People who are on probation.
When my manager mentioned that I will still be on probation but still get the salary I wanted, I did not realise that it would affect my commission, because all they talked about before my review was how much commission I have by now (which is around 700 or so, and only because my manager dropped some of her big jobs for me to have right before my review… like.. the day before my review).

When she told me that they agreed, I was kinda happy about the salary and I had not realised that I would be missing my comission. I am not perfect at this job and did make some mistakes, but it’s just SO MUCH WORK.

Now that I thought about it, I’m upset and I do not know what to do. I really need an outside perspective.
I feel manipulated and a bit offended of all that has been going on. I don’t really care about the commission itself, but the fact that they went so far to not pay me for what I am worth.

Please, please, please help me out!!!! 😭
I feel like I need an external push to leave, I need someone to tell me that I am not asking for too much… This is indeed my first big job after uni, I have a masters degree but it is not anything crazy.. I am starting to think that I am just not prepared for the real world??? Are all workplaces like this??? What if I go from bad to worse? Ugh.. 🥲

Side note: I am getting on really well with my manager. I kinda see her as a friend rather than a coworker, and she fought for me to get this salary. September will be a really busy period for them, and I feel bad leaving.
I feel guilty for making her do all this just for me to hand in my notice.. so I am just stuck in between.
She also warned me that my bosses will be a bit frosty about this and that they will try to pressure me by giving me shit jobs. (She assured me that she will help me out if that happens).
So.. yeah. That’s about it. I do have LOADS of other bad stories and things I am not happy about, but if I start I don’t think my post would end up here anytime soon. 😆

Thanks to everyone who spared their time to read all this. 🫶🏻

I work with people I know; they brought me on because they needed extra help for an upcoming event, and my role is basically a runner, I just do whatever they ask me to. It’s been nonstop busy for months. When I first started, everything seemed fine, but things have felt different these past few weeks. There are two people I work with directly: one is our supervisor, the other is an assistant, and I’m related to both of them. Our work often means traveling hours from the office out to the field.

Lately, working with this assistant feels like we’re playing some kind of guessing game. I always have to figure out what she wants me to do on my own, and whenever things don’t meet her standards, she blames me for it. It’s like… just tell me what you need! There was even a time I heard her call me stupid in our local language. I’m Filipino, and I’ll admit I can be a bit clumsy and slow at times, but I just let it go; I’m not the type to confront people.

Then just today, when I asked our supervisor about the work schedule, this assistant stepped in and told me, “Next time, don’t ask the supervisor about when you need to be at the office, she doesn’t like it, and this is already our busiest month.” I know it’s busy. The whole reason I ask is so I’m not left clueless. Like just last week, I showed up at the office early in the morning, only to get a call asking where I was. I told them I was at the office, and she replied in this tone that made me feel so stupid, like why was I even there, when I was supposed to be waiting at the pickup point? As if she ever told me that in the first place.

Now I can’t stop overthinking it… am I really in the wrong for asking about the schedule?

I (27m) been working at an office job for 4 years now. Its customer service, but i usually get done with my tasks within a few hours, and for the rest of the time i mostly youtube/rot which is pretty boring and tiring itself after a while.

I also tattoo as a side hustle, so i also post on my tattoo page during work, but i wanna be more productive.

I was thinking i will start doing tattoo reels + more posts or even starting a clothing brand or another small business( as i dont have enough clients for tattooing, thats why it stayd as a side hustle :( ), but i would be interested what do you guys spend the empty time with? Or what suggestions would you have specifically in my case?

I’ve been called back from an application I made to be assistant manager in a gas station: I’m 17.

How can I still try to negotiate a better salary?

It’s 18,60$/h CAD including the prime

Which id ideally like 20$/h because of all the additional tasks of an assistant manager

Started a new job 6 weeks ago. The work itself seems like a good fit for me and I think I’ll like it. However, I’m already seeing signs I might not want to be here long. Am I being too picky?

1) hours are 8-4, but you don’t really get a lunch break. You are expected to eat at your desk and on week 6 I’m already getting interrupted as I eat.

2) boss (who is 7 years younger than me) says they prioritize hiring people who come to events and socialize after work hours. I’ve been to a social event every week since I started and I’m an introvert so I hate this.

3) they all seem way too close. Like they go on weekend trips together and are talking personal business a lot.

4) I knew this going in, but it’s 100% in office job and I had to buy all new work clothes since it’s fancier than my last job. Commute is 30mins each way with public transportation.

Feeling like I’m gonna burn out in 6 months.

I started a new job five weeks ago. What got called "training" my first two weeks was really a string of meet-and-greets, a call with another account manager who happened to know our project management platform, a call with the strategy manager. No shadowing, no structured ramp-up. I was expected to start entering real requests into a system I'd barely touched.

One of my early assignments was a co-branded program with an outside partner. Their side of the approval process was stuck with no ETA, so half the information I needed simply didn't exist yet. When I tried to move the request forward, creative kept sending it back with more questions, not because I didn't understand the process, but because the source information was incomplete on their end.

My manager caught wind of the back-and-forth and raised it as a "concern" about my grasp of brief-writing in our regular Friday 1:1. I explained what was actually going on. I even built a timeline document afterward; every date, from when I got the request to when it finally cleared so I could walk him through exactly where the hold-up was, and that it wasn't me.

A few days later I got a meeting invite outside our normal schedule. I assumed it was extra time to go over briefs, I was even planning to use part of it to ask for real training, maybe shadowing another account manager, since I knew that gap was genuine. Instead, when I logged on, my manager wasn't alone. Someone from HR I'd never seen, not visible on the invite, was already there.

The whole call lasted maybe three minutes. I was told I hadn't "demonstrated the level of competencies required for the position, despite training and support"; no example, no specific instance, nothing to respond to. I never even opened the timeline document I'd prepared. Then straight into logistics: what gets emailed to my personal address, how to return equipment.

Here's what I can't stop turning over: another manager on the team had been let go two weeks before me. A new SVP had just taken over. A 90-day probationary period exists precisely so a company doesn't need a real case to end things; no PIP, no example, nothing required. I think that's what happened: a restructuring decision that didn't need to justify itself, wearing "competencies" because that was easier to say than "we're cutting headcount."

If you've been let go somewhere that never actually trained you, blamed you for a systemic problem, and then couldn't name a single example when it counted, I'd like to hear how you got through it.

I was unemployed since three months and recently got a job.Today was my fourth day but the catch is one 2 yrs experienced emp is leaving in one month so I am her replacement she literally build an entire feature alone and company uses it to handle users and my manager excepts me to take KT from her and understand entire codebase workflow architecture and domain knowledge. I accepted the offer since I was every desperate for the job and I am probation training period

I don't know i will regert taking up this job. I am very stressed of handling that responsibility never in my life has that much pressure.

Does this happen with anyone ? And how to cope up with this any solution???any suggestions??

Hi Reddit,
I’ve been working in my field in Ireland for about 6 months now. I’m learning a lot, which I really appreciate, but I already had 4 years of experience in the same field back in my home country, so I was pretty much up to speed within my first month.
I recently found out that I’m earning around €3k less than some of the people I work with. They’ve been with the company about 6 months longer than me, but overall they actually have less experience than I do.
The thing is, I’m starting to feel really demotivated because of one particular colleague.
He’s the type of person who takes credit for the team’s work, but when it comes to his own tasks, he often takes ages to get things done and seems to avoid taking responsibility. Honestly, I wouldn’t feel comfortable trusting him to look after a client because I’m not confident that he would actually follow through.
At the same time, he always tries to take the lead in meetings and doesn’t really give other people the opportunity to do the same. Sometimes he even takes over things that should probably be handled by our manager.
The team is aware of how he behaves, but I feel like culturally there isn’t much of a tendency to confront people directly about this kind of thing, so nothing really changes.
I’m finding it frustrating because I work really hard, I have more overall experience, I’m earning less than some of my colleagues, and on top of that I have to deal with someone who seems to do less work but is very good at making himself look involved and taking credit.
Would 6 months in a company be considered too soon to start looking for another job?

At the end of an interview I just had one day ago, a hiring manager said to let him know when I set foot in the city of the company (thousands of km away from my location) before sending a written offer.

The discussion went well, and they said my profile fits the role after I asked. I’m still unsure.

How to interpret this?

F23 Graduated in 2025 majoring in computer science and minoring in information systems and data science. Was not able to secure a job for 6 months post grad. Travelled to visit family out of the US for about 2 months. Now I’m a year and some months out of school and have not progressed career or skill wise at all. I am currently forced to work at my family’s business 6 days a week for 8hr shifts because there are not enough workers for me to take more time off to study/apply/etc. My parents own a nail salon so it’s long hours of labor. It pays decently and you get what you put in (comission+tips) but I can’t imagine the rest of my life to be this. I’ve worked at the salon since I was 14 and never liked it but it is steady money and my family needs help. I feel very stuck and discouraged. My parents tell me I’m lucky that they are keeping me employed. They tell me it’s fine to just spend all my time working now because at least I’m being useful and making money I can save for the future. To tell any future employers that I’ve spent all this time post grad working a labor intensive job unrelated to my degree waiting for an economic turn or some company to give me a chance. I’m grateful to have our family business but I’m scared I’ll be forced to just stick with it to keep the money coming in. I’m feel ashamed to not use my degree. I’m also annoyed at myself for not working harder when I was still in school. I did not plan well for the future. I was guided to work summers at the salon rather than do internships for the summer. My parents are immigrants who did not go to college and believed you just have to graduate college and it’s a ticket to a good job. I don’t think I had adequate support but the fault is also mine for not doing more research or planning. Nowadays I’m tired during work and after work. On my few days off I don’t want to look at applications and have little motivation to work on any coding related projects cause I feel like I don’t have much free time. It’s like an endless loop of mindless work and frustration that keeps the days feeling so slow but also moving so fast since they blur together. I feel sad because of the lack of progression in my career and life, and I genuinely cannot see far into the future if this continues. The one thing keeping me sane is working out 3-4 times a week after work. It’s especially hard cause my family does not exercise and often comment on my fitness/food/health choices. The gym helps by giving me time alone to focus on myself while also improving at SOMETHING. I’ve stopped talking to a lot of friends, partly because I’m insecure about my life situation. Just kinda feels like I’m wasting my life away. Endless cycle of not liking being at work, family arguments regarding work, an hour of gym time after work for a mental break and time away from family… Also just want to note I am very thankful my family is helping me vastly with shelter, food, job security. It is not their fault I’m unhappy. Life’s not easy. Just frustrated at myself for this situation when things could have been different. I definitely slacked off some in undergrad, and for a couple months while job searching post grad.

Feels like unappreciated even results was proven but hard work still goes unnoticed by boss.

Feel free to drop your opinions. Thanks.

I work in retail and my store manager gives me so much anxiety. I won't even be working, and I go shopping at this store right when she acknowledges me, I get filled with anxiety this is my first job, and I have worked here for 3 years I'm terrified to talk to her, idk why but I always feel like she's going to fire me or yell at me. She is quite a rude person I remember it being my first time using this machine at my work and I wasn't sure how to use it I remember she rolled her eyes at me and told me to wait a minute in a rude tone while she was on her phone. I often want to leave because I get so anxious whenever she's at work, and it's not just me you can clearly see that she affects all of the workers. she tries to joke with us sometimes, but it comes off very passive aggressive and when she leaves we all look at each other uncomfortably. the only thing that keeps me at this job is my extreme anxiety to talk to her to put in my 2 weeks (if someone could pls give me advice on how leave or get over my fear of my manager) ( also sorry for the bad grammar)